The Evil Dictator is dead, let democracy reign supreme... It’s time for our annual staff poll. 42 staff members voted for 92 different records, the majority of which were only a favourite of one writer.

Curious who picked what? You’ll find who voted for what below this list.

The below list differs somewhat to the Editor’s Cut that I published a few days ago. That was an attempt to try something different: a personal take and approximation of what I perceived to be a refraction of the mood of the editorial we've published and the forums. Apologies to anyone who was (and still is) confused or felt that this human-filtering over-stepped the mark. I still like the idea of continuing to revise that list based on people's passion for certain records (I have already decided the SZA album should have been far higher and Julie Byrne not being on the list was a huge oversight! Mount Eerie have a lot of fans on our forum too.)

Still to come, of course, is the annual user poll (which goes live to take part in any day now), which is likely to serve up a very different variation on what the highlights of 2017 were/are. It just goes to show that there is no definitive answer to what “the best” of the year is, there are only personal perspectives.

Whichever list you prefer (probably your own personal one), happy foraging for records to love from the feast that 2017 served up.